Tuesday, January 17, 2012

"Half-Blood" by Jennifer L. Armentrout

From Goodreads: "The Hematoi descend from
the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two
Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and
mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become
trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the
homes of the pures.Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her
life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up
slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the
Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially
rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are
forbidden.Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot
pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest
problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a
Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than
death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden.
And that would kind of suck."

After reading "Obsidian" and loving almost everything about it I had no qualms about purchasing this book, the first book in Jennifer L. Armentrout's "Covenant" series (even after reading multiple reviews prior to purchasing this book that stated that it was quite similar to Richelle Mead's "Vampire Academy" series). While admittedly the similarities between the two books are quite uncanny (ie. both Rose and Alex fall for someone who is off-limits to them specifically an authority figure, both Rose and Alex set out to kill the person that they love most in the world, the elitist society developed within the book, the "Pures" needing protection, protection which they receive from the half-bloods, the "Hematoi", etc.), this book was still quite enjoyable and one that I am sure that I will read time and time again.

I think that one of the main reasons why this book is successful is because of the (potential) romantic relationships which are contained within it- both of Alex's romantic options, Seth and Aiden, possess amazing qualities and are frankly likeable- Seth more so being the "bad boy" who will sweep you off of your feet with his snarky, though bluntly honest, attitude and Aiden being the epitome of "reliable-all-American-boy-next-door". I literally cannot choose one boy over the other -versus a book series like "Vampire Academy" where, in my opinion, one male character (Dimitri), shines much more brightly (and is so much larger than life) than the other male character (Adrian), and therefore there is essentially no competition- you automatically know who the female character is going to end up with. Another reason why this book is so successful is because of Alex- she is by far one of the most kickass, snarky, selfless, sarcastic and sassy females YA characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading before.

I think that my largest complaint about this book is that I wish that the first half of the book was more like the second half of the book- extremely captivating with all of the Apollyon / Hematoi talk, fast-paced, and unlike any book in the world of YA at the moment. That being said, I do highly recommend this book- I personally cannot wait to read the next book in the series, "Pure".

6 comments:

Oh you finally got a chance to read Half-Blood! I'm glad you enjoyed it! This was the only series I don't think I chose the bad boy - I'm still on the fence about Seth. But I'm with you about Dimitri.

I loved the action in the 2nd half of the book, but I loved the setup, too. I'm not sure if you've read Daimon, the prequel, but that is all action and leads right into this novel, so if you read it immediately prior to reading the book, you've had the perfect setup.

I completely did not see the VA similarities as I was reading, though as you point them out I can see it. But I think there's such a different feel to the author's writing that I completely missed this.

Awesome review Avery and I hope you get a chance to get an early read of Pure!

Yay! So glad you enjoyed this one too Avery! There are definitely undeniable similarities to Vampire Academy, but they were superficial I think, she made her characters and her mythology really different even if they followed a similar path as Mead's characters. I just adored Aiden and Seth and need Pure right this minute:)

I just read this one last week or something like that, and I definitely liked it as well. I'm still weirded out by all the VA similarities, though... like, some of the similarities are SO strange that it makes me nervous (I don't want to call up the P word). BUT once the book got going I think it stands on its on. I definitely liked it better than Obsidian, and I can see why everyone was going nuts over it.